A Perfect Day For Bananafish

           "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" was written by J. D Salinger in postwar America, at a time where many war veterans of World War II were struggling to readjust to everyday life. Throughout the story, unless paying close attention, many people would not catch on to Seymour's past issues with trying to commit suicide, and his dealings with PTSD. Earlier in the story, Seymour's wife Muriel is on the phone with her mother when his "past incidents" are brought to light. When talking to her mother, her mother asks "Did he try any of that funny business with the trees?" and further on going into how much the car would cost to be fixed. This can be explained by Seymour previously trying to commit suicide by crashing Muriel's fathers' car into a tree, being unsuccessful. Further on, we learn about "that business with the window" and "those horrible things he said to Granny about her plans for passing away". From this and the conversation expanding previously upon talking to a psychiatrist, Dr. Sivetski, we can assume Seymour has tried to commit suicide more than once since returning from the war and has inquired upon his wife's grandmother about how she was going to die/ what she was going to do after she was dead. With these past incidents though, it doesn't seem as if Seymour was completely sure he was ready to go through with his plans for leaving the world, For jumping out a window, depending on how high, and crashing a car into a tree does not always guarantee death. There was still a part of Seymour wanting to stay; he wouldn't have stayed around as as long as he did if there wasn't.  Seymour strived to get away from society, like J. D Salinger writes for his other characters inThe Catcher in the Rye, and finally comes to the conclusion that he will totally end it. At the end of the story, Seymour finally dies with a bullet to the head from a Ortiges caliber 7.65 automatic in the same room of which his wife was sleeping in.